Managing a business effectively, efficiently, and innovatively is an art, and we discuss how to make that happen here. In this space, we discuss the methods, tools, techniques, and tips for making your business thrive, from initial planning to redesign and reinvention. The discussion is open, the topics varied, and the opportunities to learn can be endless. Enjoy!

Strategic Vision

12/18/2017

John Tieso

Author, Lecturer in Management & Healthcare Systems

Arlington VA, January 3 2017

[Reprinted from LinkIn]

We all have personal visions, and may have professional or commercial visions as well. But how do you know if your vision is what it should be? Perhaps, there is a way to tell the quality level of your desires.

Personally, I like to think of several things:

First - does the proposed vision truly represent me (or my organization)? That should not be a difficult question to answer, if you have standards and ethical considerations that you apply in your life and/or work.

Second, would my desired approach -- my vision, cause others to follow me, leaving their own level of comfort, to take on a new challenge? From a personal perspective, am I giving people the kind of information they can believe in, and feel success from?

Third, and connection to the previous questions, does the approach -- the vision-- I suggest give people a reason to believe it can succeed, and that they want to be part of that success? Are others willing to depart from their own personal 'comfort zone' to try? Are YOU really willing to do the same thing?

Fourth, does this vision 'breathe' success? In order to do that, you have to clearly understand what your vision proposes, and have others both understand and agree without perspective. if you cannot adequately articulate what you propose, others will normally not follow.

Fifth, and finally, are you willing to go the distance to achieve your vision? Are you ready to accept that it might require change as time moves on, and are you ready to make those changes needed to ensure success?

If you can truly say YES to all of these questions, and understand how to express that assurance to others, you are on the way to making change or opportunity, or both, happen. Good luck in your efforts.

A few evenings ago, i happened to be at home with no papers to grade or projects to review, and put on Public Broadcasting. It just so happened that one on my favorite Agatha Christie novels was being televised, Body in the Library, and I knew that would be the main event of the evening.

As I watched movie, a British version by their equivalent of PBS, it came to me that the genius of Dame Christie was not limited just to murder and mayhem; he also provided some subliminal messages to the audience that many of us in the business world could easily adopt ourselves. let me suggest just a few for discussion here.

First, never jump to conclusions before you have a reasonable set of facts.Miss Marple, the amateur criminologist, will get you every time. In this case, while it was clearly murder from the outset, and Dame Christie provides a complex set of circumstances that keeps you bouncing between characters, nearly until the ending, when suddenly all becomes clear.

Unfortunately, in much of society, people pick up strands of data, not even information really, and quickly 'decide' the result. Usually, they are wrong, but they have done so much damage to themselves and their reputation, and to others that regardless of the outcome, people are scarred unnecessarily. First impressions can be a hypothesis to be proven (or dis-proven) but they should not be the sole factor in decision-making.

Second, make sure you truly have facts and not simply plausible conjecture.Inspector Slack, the intrepid detective in the novel, has the reputation for looking twice at everything, and then searching again to prove or disprove what is before him. That riles his superiors, and confounds his associates sometimes, but it leads to good decisions. In our world of communications and technology, what seems to be happening might be something completely different. How many never check resumes of prospects, or 'think' someone is the 'expert' in an area, and move forward, only to find they were completely wrong in their approach? Assembling data still makes it data--it is the context that transforms it into information, which must them be checked for authenticity, applicability, and reality. All too often, each of us has skipped those steps and paid the price.

Third, when you are too close to something, recognize it and step back. One of the things I like about this novel is that it is set in the countryside in England, where people who live on the nearby properties are your friends, neighbors, and often professional associates. The Chief Inspector lived next to the prime suspect ( they are both retired colonels) and both active in the administration of the district. The Chief Inspector logically would like to prove that his friend is not involved in the murder. he accepts his word for it, and then actively steers the investigation away from him, in any way he can, including taking every step of the investigation with his subordinates.

Logic should say that you trust your associates and subordinates to good the job expected on them. If you do not have trust, you do not have a team--you do have a group which happens to be in the same place at the same time, but working to different objectives. Leadership often gives way to mentorship in situations where you either have a personal interest or some other conflict that ought to ring bells to say--STAY AWAY FROM HERE. That does not mean to put up a wall so high you cannot provide oversight; it does mean that you trust the judgement of others that they will bring the truth to you.

Finally, teams get answers, not groups working discordantly. Working through issues with each member of the team providing their expertise provides much better answers than a kluged together supposition based on little or no facts. Put the people in charge who know how to get those answers; let them lead the group as you become their mentor. A good leader does not always have to be 'in charge'. A good leader does have to engender respect, provide mentorship, and be ready to assist where needed to achieve the desired result. Most efforts, however are team efforts, not solo efforts.

One additional comment here. Look for the Miss Marple's of the world; those with an immense knowledge base that can provide observations and answers where none seem to be present. These people are not usually out in front leading, they are more generally in the background and hard to find. if you do find one, you have a jewel that will light the way to success.

Bottom line here: Sometimes a good detective story shows you the way to solve difficult problems, even if they do not involve murder or mayhem.

07/31/2016

In a recent article titled "Be an Outstanding leader", I discussed how vision is so imp0rtant to success. In fact, without a clear and understandable vision, it is nearly impossible to craft success because you do not know where you want to be at some future time.

Think of a vision as a story about yourself; your goals, aspirations, and desires to satisfy customers. As Stan Toler says, in his excellent book "Outstanding Leadership" (Harvest House Press, 2016), "The core principle of a developing vision plan is its impact on people's needs. Organizations built solely on steel and plastic, and a rigid corporate infrastructure will slowly drift into the sunset unless they have a mindset of 'customer first', and 'opinion matters'."

The basis of a vision then is your image of how you intend to satisfy customers and clients. Your 'story' is about you, your organization, what they do, how they do it, and how well they satisfy their customers or clients. A good story speaks to the convictions and motivations which led to the creation of the organization, how the leaders perceive that their skills and capabilities are what the customer wants and needs, and why they should come to you for those capabilities rather than someone else.

Leadership is the crux of the effort. The authentic, effective leader knows the organization well; perhaps better than others. He understands what it took to get to the current state, how well that state can be supported and improved, what qualities the organization possesses which are desired by customers, and can develop l;ans to get and keep customers, with their acceptance and buy-in.

A successful business operation is not about the business itself. It is not about the infrastructure, the technology, or even the the employees per se. it is about how all of these constituent parts of the organization contribution to satisfying the needs of the customers, and even those who share the convictions of the customers.

Let me give you a short example here. Too many years ago, as i was growing up in Boston, most families bought from the local department stores, especially Woolworth's and Sears Roebuck because of their reputation for helpful service, and clothing and other items which lasted a long time. Clothing especially lasted a very long time, and was often passed between children as they grew and even to other families in the neighborhood. The department stores befitted from not just the original sale, but from the goodwill generated by the continued use of their products, and then the shoppers who came to buy similar goods, based on their second-hand experiences. All of the department stores of the day concentrated on assuring customers of their quality, wearability, usability, and availability at a reasonable price for those goods.

The companies all developed their vision around customer service, quality, price, and availability. Using those elements of their vision, they developed their strategies and plans knowing that they could answer the four questions most recently posed by Toler:

Who are we?

What do we Do?

Where are we going?

How and when will we get there?

In the next parts of this series, we will look in more depth at some potential ways to answer these questions, aimed at success.

07/15/2016

As I often say to my students, leadership is a learned art--on which takes time and patience to comprehend and even more time to understanding enough of the principles and practices to succeed. Recently, on a stroll through the local market, I came across a small book, titled "Outstanding Leadership", by Stan Toler, published by Harvest House Press. it is a small book, only 4x6, but packed into the 150 pages or so, are some real gems on true, authentic leadership.

I want to share a few of these tidbits over several short articles in the next few weeks, but I also found the perfect place to start. In one of his introductory chapters, Toler discusses the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the new world:

"Before Columbus departed, he didn't have a clue where he was going."

"When he arrived, he didn't have a clue where he was."

"When he got ready to leave, he didn't have a clue how to get back home."

Toler goes to discuss visioning and creating strategy--activities which prevent just what Columbus went through on his voyage. Since it isn't logically possible to tie a rope to the pier in Spain, and let it out as you go forward, or try to drop crumbs into the ocean that you can find later, you have to have some form of alternative strategy that will do what you want to do. Unlike Columbus, people do not generally simply get into a boat and sail away, hoping for the best, and perhaps a few orientals indicating you have reached the Orient. At least, that was his plan for the time.

Columbus had a vision; he wanted to reach the Orient by sailing West rather than East as had already been done by others. He also has a shaky strategy; take three ships and men and sail out hoping that the world was not flat, and his ships would not fall over the end of the world. He traveled on faith rather than fact, and ended up being right, there was a way to travel west and reach something--it just was not the Orient. Instead, he ran into an obstacle of sorts--another continent--which stood in his way of achieving his goal, his vision.

The essential fact is that you have to have a vision to be successful, especially as a leader. The vision has to be real; otherwise it is nothing more than a dream. It has attributes, such as:

- It is people-driven, or as Toler says, 'defined with people in mind'; not just any group of people, but those with a part in the process.

- It is real as opposed to something that might look real, but in actually a fantasy. Toler describes the difference between a real Christmas Tree and a fake one bought in a store. it may look real, but the texture, the smell, and the way it ages (or does not) gives away its reality.

- It must be practical; reflecting reasonable, people-focused goals and objectives. Where people do not relate to the vision, it quickly becomes irrelevant. Moreover, as Toler indicates, 'a definitive and easy to relate vision gains relevance and buy-in as it is developed and and distributed.'

-It is inspirational, causing people to want to act and respond to it.

Finally, there is one more aspect to visioning, and perhaps its most important attribute: it is, as Toler relates, 'Born in the mind and Heart'. it starts with an idea, and blossoms into a full-blown solution which can be formed, organized, related, and provides the motivation for people to want to succeed because they believe in it as much as its creator.

While visioning is certainly about achieving success, it is also about how success is achieved and provides the first kindling for the development of changes to the culture of the organization. In many ways, it describes the life blood of the organization, how it work with and succeed with employees, manager,s owners, and customers alike in their shared view of success.

In the next part of this series we will speak to strategy as a means of taking vision and expressing the HOW a visioneer sees their idea gain relevance and structure in the organization.